I would like to use this 60-minute call to scope a possible 6- to 8-week Taproot Project for OPSA.

Oregon Pain Science Alliance is a small nonprofit focused on public education about pain and neuroplastic science. Two long-serving founding board members need to step back for health and age-related reasons, and another board member has limited availability. The organization has mainly operated through a working board, and we need to begin moving toward a governance board while recruiting new board members.

We also do not currently have administrative support. I am an independent contractor serving as Program Director, and I currently handle most of the organization’s day-to-day program and administrative work. I need to focus my time on program development and implementation, so we need to identify and recruit administrative support rather than continue adding administrative responsibilities to my role.

OPSA recently received a grant to support ONSET, our young-adult neuroplastic science education and outreach program. We are preparing to launch the next stage of that program while also going through this larger organizational transition.

During the call, I would like advice and brainstorming about:

What needs to be addressed first
How to begin moving from a working board toward a governance board
What responsibilities the board needs to cover
What administrative support we need to recruit and how that role should be defined
What kinds of board members and administrative support we should seek
What information and responsibilities need to be documented as current board members step back
Whether these needs should be combined into one follow-up project or divided into separate projects
What specific results would be realistic for a volunteer to complete in 6 to 8 weeks
What skills the volunteer should have and what OPSA would need to provide

The main outcome I am hoping for is a clear project scope that I could use to create a follow-up Taproot Project request, including its purpose, deliverables, timeline, volunteer skills, and realistic expectations.

Organization Mission

To participate in the transformation of society’s understanding of pain and to provide hope and choices for individuals to improve their pain care options and outcomes by engaging in pro-active management and mastery of their pain experience.